In storage area networks, certain communications and features may be enabled only between fiber channel (FC) switches belonging to a same or a certified manufacturer. Upon connection, two FC switches run a FC protocol for communicating between each other over a physical link. FC protocol frames are exchanged thereby allowing each FC switch to identify the other FC switch and know which features and/or functionalities may be enabled for communicating.
Each FC switch typically identifies a peer switch by checking an identifier retrieved from the exchanged FC protocol frames. However, under certain circumstances, although the peer switch has a valid identifier, the FC switch may not be able to recognize the peer switch. As a result, some features may not be enabled or communications between the FC switches may simply not be allowed.